PES Sponsored Battle Bot Wins National Championship

As part of the National Robotics League (NRL) and Bots IQ programs, dozens of high schools in the Southwest PA region and hundreds of schools nationwide participate in a robotics battle competition that develops and showcases engineering and manufacturing skills at the high school level. The NRL is a manufacturing workforce development program of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA), where students design and build remote controlled robots (Bots) to face-off in a gladiator-style competition. Through the manufacturing process of Bot building, students must design, build and operate their robotic creations. Through their efforts, along with industry partnerships, students gain practical knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) – all essential skills for manufacturing.

PES was proud to be a sponsor of Hempfield High School’s Bots IQ Team this year, in the creation of their robot named “Eli”. The Hempfield team and their robot had an excellent year, culminating in Grand Champion at the Southwest PA Bots IQ regional competition in April and National Grand Champion at the National Robotics League competition in May. Hempfield has won the regional competition championship three years in a row and claimed their first national championship. Many hours of hard work and dedication were invested by the students and their advisor/teacher Craig Siniawski. Congratulations Hempfield on a successful season and good luck to the graduating students in their future endeavors.